Safeguarding
As a school, we aspire to live out God’s plan for all to flourish.
We believe in providing our children with opportunities to use and develop the gifts and talents they have been blessed with, to ensure they embrace ‘Life in its fullness’ (John 10:10) following the teachings of Jesus.
Our vision is to place the child at the heart of everything we do, 'Learning for the Fullness of Life’. It is to work together, where everyone is a partner in learning; providing a safe, happy, caring and stimulating community, where children are given opportunities to reach their true potential.
We take the safety and welfare of all our school community very seriously and all staff are trained on safeguarding regularly and all staff are trained using the key document Keeping Children Safe in Education (Sept 2024) and attend any other relevant safeguarding training such as Prevent.
Under the Education Act 2002, schools must make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
Parents/carers should know that the law (Children Act 1989) requires all school staff to pass on information which gives rise to a concern about a child’s welfare, including risk from neglect, physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Staff will seek, in general, to discuss any concerns with the parent/carer and discuss the need to make a referral to Children’s Social Care if that is considered necessary. This will only be done where such discussion will not place the child at increased risk of significant harm or cause undue delay. The school will seek advice from Children’s Social Care when they have reasonable cause to suspect a child may be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. Occasionally, concerns are passed on which are later found to be unfounded.
Parents/carers will appreciate that the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (Michelle Crowe) will carry out responsibilities in accordance with the law and act in the best interests of all children.
Deputy Safeguarding Lead : Sherrel Brown
Other Designated Safeguarding Officers : Sarah Maile
Our policies and guidance to support Safeguarding are -
- Safeguarding Policy
- School arrangements for safeguarding
- Code of Conduct (Staff, Governor and Volunteers)
- E Safety Policy
- Smartwatch Policy
We all have a responsibility for safeguarding children; keeping children safe. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:
- protecting children from maltreatment;
- preventing impairment of children's health or development;
- ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and
- taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
Warwickshire’s Safeguarding Children website has been designed to provide information and guidance for:
- children and young people
- parents and carers
- professionals and agencies working with children, young people and their families
If you have concerns that a child is suffering any form of abuse, neglect or cruelty contact the Warwickshire Children and Families Front Door (Front Door) immediately by calling 01926 414144. Lines are open Monday to Thursday 8.30am - 5.30pm, Friday 8.30am - 5.00pm.
If you need to get in touch out of usual office hours, please contact the Emergency Duty Team immediately by calling 01926 886922.
If you think that a child is at immediate risk, contact the Police immediately by calling 999
As part of Ettington Primary School's commitment to safeguarding and child protection, we support the Government's Prevent Strategy, and take guidance to help build resilience to extremism.
The Prevent Strategy is a Government Strategy designed to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. It:
- responds to the ideological challenge we face from terrorism and aspects of extremism, and the threat we face from those who promote these views.
- provides practical help to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure they are given appropriate advice and support.
- works with a wide range of sectors (including education, criminal justice, faith, charities, online and health).
Education is a powerful tool against the ignorance, division and fear created by extremism. We will provide children with the knowledge, skills and critical thinking to challenge extremist ideas. At Ettington Primary School we provide a broad and balanced curriculum, so that our children recognise and respect diversity and difference, and feel valued members of our school community. We are aware that children can be exposed to extremist influences or prejudiced views from early childhood through a variety of sources and media, and that they may at times reflect or display views which may be discriminatory, prejudiced or extremist, or use offensive language.
Any discrimination, prejudice or extremist views, including offensive language, shown by pupils or staff will be dealt with in line with our Behaviour Policy and Staff Code of Conduct, and will always be addressed.
Operation Encompass
Ettington C of E Primary School takes part in a jointly run operation called Operation Encompass in partnership with Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Police. Many other schools in Warwickshire are also participating in the scheme.
Operation Encompass is a way of working, initially developed in south-west England, that is already operating successfully in a number of other Local Authority areas. Its objective is to help schools provide support to children who are affected by incidents of domestic violence and abuse.
There is a great deal of research evidence that children can suffer significant physical and/or emotional harm when they are present during, witness or are directly involved in incidents of domestic violence and abuse.
The Operation Encompass process is simply that after any incident of domestic violence or abuse attended by the Police, the Headteacher at the school attended by any child in the household, will receive a confidential and secure email on the morning of the next school day.
The email will only inform the Headteacher that the Police have attended an incident and will request that the school is mindful of that in their care and responses to the child throughout the school day. The school will not be informed about the specific details of the incident. The only exception would be when Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Police deem the incident to be a child protection matter that requires further investigation. Information would then be shared with the school as part of Warwickshire County Council’s child protection checks and investigation, which is current practice and will not be changed by Operation Encompass.
NSPCC
Tips and advice to help keep your kids safe
Talk PANTS is here to help children understand that they have a right to say no and if they need to speak out about something, someone will listen. We teach this at Willingdon Primary School and each class has a book to help them to remember.